Allways launched succesfully before but today the launch procedure seems to work at first but instead of launching the game it returns the green Start button in Steam. And naturally I tried to restart the computer but with the same result. Seems like Steam start and shut down rFactor2 immediatly? I did run yesterday and created an account for the on-line racing if that fact somehow is in play? But I did that some days ago and had no problems starting the game yesterday. Don't know what happened and frustrating. Might add that another Steam controled SIM F1 22 starts without the same problem.
Did you have any lockup at the end of your last session? After every race or session, rF2 re-writes information to several files like the Player.json. If that process gets interrupted by a lockup, crash to desktop, or you moved on to some other program while it was writing the files to your hard drive, then sometimes those files can become corrupted. So the first thing to try is in STEAM, right click on rFactor2 and choose Properties, then Installed Files. There you will see an option to verify the integrity of the game files. Click on that and wait for that process to complete. Make sure you wait a minute or so after Steam says it's done because the game is often still finishing up the process. Do not Un-install/Re-install. That is 'usually' a waste of time because only the files Steam put in place are removed. So there can be lots of folders left behind that muck up the sim. Creating the Online Account IS the process to get into the Race Control events. I can't remember if you get an email or not, check your spam folder to see if anything from S397 got dumped there. That should,(IF there is any email) confirm that you are signed up. If rF2 is STILL being a butt, use Windows Explorer to navigate inside the main rFactor2 folder within Steam. There you will see a bunch of folders, one of them is named UserData. Right click on that and choose the option to re-name the folder. It can be just about anything, I use a format like this: UserXXXData that will allow rF2 to rebuild you a fresh copy of the UserData folder AND keep the original next to it when viewing the files with Windows Explorer. Makes it easy to move controller profiles. Let us know how that goes!
First I didn't have any lockup yesterday as far I remeber, but you never know if you did anything too fast when closing down but I raced an online race with my new account and then closed down. I did the verification and waited it out before any attempt, but it behaved as before. It seems to start and I cought a glimse of info in the interface about running the file but then again it re-create the green Start-button (that first changes to button to stop the start procedure). Normally the rFactor screen used to open. And I did a backup on the UserData folder as well, but it didn't work. Did even a re-boot on a second attempt. So I'm stucked. A game that worked without problems for years can't launch at all. The computer was off between my yesterday sessions and todays futile attempts to start. And as said, the F1 22 start from Steam without problems so it has to do with some rFactor related bug or so. Thank's anyway and hope you have more suggestions?
You did a backup of UserData and then also remembered to delete the existing UserData folder? That usually solves lots of issues. Also re-run graphics configuration when launching the game (screenshot below) and try to change some graphic settings there for example test running it in windowed mode instead of fullscreen.
I just re-named the folder as a backup so there's no reference left. I will try your other avice tomorrow as I have to leave it right now. I will respond tomorrow evening when I tried the graphics config you mention. So strange as the game worked everytime before. And it worked with the new on-line account as well so I can't really say that it changed anything, even if it is the only 'change' I've done since the problem occured today.
frustrating to be sure. Hopefully we can sort it out. Keep us informed when you try the other suggestions. If you renamed the folder then deleting it should not make any difference. Other basic thing to try, look at the top center of any of the menus to see if there are pending updates. If so click on that text and then click the button that starts the pending update process.
@DanMicke What you also can do, is written HERE under the Section "Trace Logging". If you did it and got a Trace File generated in the Folder ..\UserData\Log, upload this Trace File here. Maybe we can find something helpful in it. You can also report the Problem in the Technical Support Forum and upload a Mini.dmp File there, which is also described on the Bottom of the same Page.
A bit busy and have to leave but managed to do: 1. Launched with teh Graphics config and used 'Windowed Mode' => Didn't work 2. Used both Trace commands => Didn't create any Trace file in UserData folder The one thing I've noticed and din't mention before is that the Steam interface seems to log that I've 'used' rFactor2 today (did so yesterday as well) and that 'usage' was in fact just the Start/launch procedure and return so I never entered any rFactor2 screen at all but Steam recorded it as 'usage'. Really hope there's some solution to this. Thank's for all help so far.
I am 'guessing' the reason for no Trace file or MiniDmp is due to rF2 not actually launching. It just hasn't progressed far enough to begin that process. Next question: Have you added any new hardware, like extra shifters, or button boxes?
Just to be sure: the Trace File, if one was generated, is in the UserData\Log Folder. Did you check that too?
Yeah, it do not launch as it use to. As said the green Start-button reacts by changing name to Stop/Interupt (or something similar as my interface is in swedish) and Steam confirm something short for a millisecond and then the green Start-button returns again as nothing happened. But from Steams point of view I did run rFactor2 as it register 'usage'. And nothing at all is changed on the computer. I use it for racing SIM only and haven't installed any hardware at all lately. As mentioned was creating the rFactor on-line account the only 'new' thing last couple of days but I could use rFactor and run some races the day before yesterday without any problem. This problem just occured with no referens to anything changed since the game was running and no such problem has occured during the 3-4 yeas I've purchased.
At the moment I'm at another computer but checked UserData folder this morning and there was hardly anything in there. As I remeber just a 'Player' folder with one file. Have to check again but can't do it now.
I'll try that tomorrow and let you know. One thing I know is that Win10 did some update around the days in question.
Thanks to that link I found the quite simple solution: >>>>> If you are experiencing startup crashes, this is one reason. It seems fairly random, but does seem to happen more with the Home than Pro editions... The runtimes rF2 requires are sometimes removed during major Windows 10 updates (and removed every time when upgrading from Windows 7 or 8/.1). You can find the runtimes you need to reinstall by navigating to this folder: steam\steamapps\common\rFactor 2\Support\Runtimes And yes, you need to reinstall all of them. >>>>> By running the four files in question rFactor2 launched just as normal from Steam. And I run on Win 10 Home edition. Must have had Win10 updates a lot since my first rFactor2 installation but this have never happened before but as the instruction above says runtimes are SOMETIMES removed during updates. Anyway this is the solution for everyone with rFactor2 startup issues (as descibed in my case) in Win10 Thank's!
